A detail of the facade of the Detroit Institute of Arts is seen in Detroit, Michigan June 2, 2013. A top officer at the Detroit Institute of Arts predicts near-certain closure for the museum if Detroit sells major pieces from the 60,000 works in the institute's art collection as a way to address the city's dire financial situation. Picture taken June 2, 2013.
REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Note: This letter originally appeared in the New York Times and was republished with the paper's and author's permission.

The choice being debated in Detroit — whether to sell works from the Detroit Institute of Arts to help pay the city's debts — is agonizing.

How can we equate a few pieces of canvas with paint on them with the pensions of thousands of firefighters, nurses, police officers, teachers and other civil servants?

The same choice is being played out in many other communities across the country. In a sense, we have always had this dilemma, but this time, there are several special factors.

One is that cities and towns are going bankrupt, and they can't continue to provide basic services, let alone support for art museums. Another factor is the stunning rise in prices for works of art. Thousands of works go for over a million dollars every year; eight- and even nine-figure prices are common.

Mixed into this is the fact that museums have become dependent on support from federal, state and local government in the form of tax subsidies, tax exemptions, especially from real estate tax, and, most important, tax deductions. At the same time, private donors are being asked to give more and more; how long will the 1 percent agree to subsidize a service for the 99 percent? There are more than 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations in this country, all with their hands out.

How can museums justify this kind of support? We claim to be moral institutions, open to all, providing the best to the most, and we all work hard to do just that. But is that really our audience? Don't we, for the most part, serve the affluent, the educated, the converted, those who are on our side of the income and education gap?

Museums make a determined effort to widen their audience — the Detroit Institute of Arts is a leader in that effort — but we are still falling short. The shortfall is where that agonizing question arises: How many lives is a Rembrandt worth?